ADMINISTRATION OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 469
by the Exchange itself. Frequently in the past they have at-
tempted to make a club of the theoretically possible but unde-
sirable extension of the Exchange's listing powers to regulate
evils, real or fancied, in our larger corporations. Of course,
no Exchange in the world has ever been made use of in this
way, or ever should. The Exchange is clearly conscious of the
fact that no one has appointed it to supervise the affairs of all
listed corporations, to discriminate among the customers of its
members with a superhuman and infallible eye for hidden mo-
tives, oversee all the banks and financial institutions of all kinds
in Wall Street and elsewhere, and to try to change the funda-
mental and eternal laws of economics to suit the erstwhile com-
plainant’s every passing whim. Indeed, should the Exchange
be foolish enough to rush in whenever someone indignantly
demands, “Why doesn’t the Stock Exchange stop this?” the
other camp of critics might for once have some justice behind
its ancient and threadbare but ever-recurring outcry against the
“tyranny of Wall Street,” etc.. etc.
Responsibility to Public Keenly Felt.—The Exchange
sticks to its last. It maintains a market place, and enforces
just and equitable principles of trade within it. Yet the Ex-
change has always been ready and willing, so far as its inherent
limitations permit, to cooperate in any movement looking tc
the benefit of the investing public. Something has been said
regarding the unremitting and successful fight it has waged
against security swindling.* While a very conservative force,
it none the less has always been emphatically patriotic and pub-
lic spirited. The Exchange realizes its essential community of
interest with the public and its responsibility to the public. The
governors of the Exchange take vastly more concern over this
responsibility than the public usually realizes,
The present organization of the Stock Exchange has, as
we have seen, resulted from an intensely practical and varied
experience since 1792. The vast spread of corporate enter-
"4 See Chapter IV, p. 120.
